NIA to probe Maoist cases

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Ranchi, April 25: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) is exploring options to probe all cases related to Maoists and other rebel groups in five eastern states of the country — Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

At a workshop held today at the state police headquarters, NIA officials from Delhi and senior police officers from the five states discussed the areas of co-operation in the ongoing investigations into cases related to Maoists, apart from criminal cases which needed detailed probing.

“The Maoists are considered as one of the biggest threat to internal security. NIA of late has shown interest in investigating the cases related to Naxalites in the five states which have been badly hit by the Left-wing extremism (LWE),” a senior police official who attended the meeting told The Telegraph.

A police source said that NIA was interested in investigating bigger cases related to the Maoists in the states for which they also need help of the respective state police.

Notably, NIA has been active in Jharkhand in the past to trace the sleeping cells of terrorism in and around Ranchi and other parts of the state. Cases of alleged terrorists Manzar Alam and Danish Imam, who have bases in Ranchi, are already being probed by the NIA.

Today top police officials of different states also discussed ways to improve co-ordination among themselves.

In Jharkhand at least two big political leaders, former JMM MP Sunil Mahto and Ramesh Singh Munda, a former welfare minister of Jharkhand, were killed by the Naxalites in 2006 and 2008 respectively.